Meta's AI Prodigy Advocates 'Vibe Coding' as the Future for Teens

28-year-old AI billionaire's advice for teens: 'Spend all of your time' doing this and you'll have a 'huge advantage'

Teens dreaming of lucrative tech careers should seize on the opportunity to hone their artificial intelligence skills by immersing themselves in the growing number of AI-powered code generation tools, says billionaire Scale AI co-founder Alexandr Wang. "You just have to figure out how to use the tools maximally," Wang said on a recent episode of the "TBPN" podcast that aired on September 17. When asked for his best advice for young people, Wang said, "it's impossible to understate the degree to which I've been radicalized by AI coding." AI coding, also called "vibe coding," involves using artificial intelligence to generate original software code simply by typing out commands and instructions. AI coding apps, like Replit and Cursor, allow you to write code, or even develop a new app, without any coding or computer engineering expertise. "It's actually, in some ways, this incredible moment of discontinuity where, if you just happen to spend, like, 10,000 hours playing with the tools and figuring out how to use them better than other people, that's a huge advantage," said Wang, who co-founded Scale AI in 2016 and helped build it into a tech unicorn that was most recently valued at $29 billion. Wang compared the current moment of rapid technological advancement to the early days of the computer revolution, when people like "the Bill Gates' of the world" capitalized on being early adopters of computers and software. Indeed, the Microsoft co-founder has said he spent his teen years sneaking out of his parents' house at night to spend hours learning to write software code, thanks to a fortuitous arrangement he had with a local Seattle company that gave him free computer access. Wang believes this era's teens would be wise to follow Gates' approach by spending as much time as possible learning to use AI coding tools: "That moment is happening right now -- and if you are, like, 13 years old, you should spend all of your time vibe coding," he said on the podcast. "That's how you should live your life." Wang -- who has an estimated net worth of $3.2 billion, according to Forbes, and was poached by Meta in June to serve as the tech giant's new chief AI officer -- is serious about AI's coding potential. Even with his massive success and standing in the industry, even Wang believes that "literally all the code I've written in my life ... will be able to have been produced by an AI model within the next five years," he told "TBPN." [<-would tighten this to: Wang has an estimated net worth of $3.2 billion, according to Forbes, and was poached by Meta in June to serve as chief AI officer. Despite his massive success and standing in the industry, even Wang believes that "literally all the code I've written in my life ... will be able to have been produced by an AI model within the next five years," he told "TBPN." The idea of AI programs potentially being able to replicate the work of even the best coders in the world is already feeding concerns about software programming remaining a promising career choice. Companies are already increasing their use of AI coding programs, and in some cases using them to replace human programmers. But Wang and others in the industry still believe in the value of teens learning programming skills, especially in concert with familiarizing themselves with relevant AI tools that can potentially help maximize those skills. "As coding becomes easier, more people should code, not fewer!" Andrew Ng, co-founder of the Google Brain research lab, wrote in a LinkedIn post in March, adding: "One of the most important skills in the future will be the ability to tell a computer exactly what you want, so it can do that for you." Ng called this "the best time yet to learn to code," noting in the post that workers with strong coding skills will be able to use AI coding tools more effectively than anyone else, making them desirable to employers who are already seeking out employees with AI skills. And, while anyone can use AI tools to generate code and create new apps and startups, entrepreneurs "who understand the language of software through their knowledge of coding" are able to communicate what they want AI to build "much more precisely" than anyone else can, Ng added. Want to be your own boss? Sign up for Smarter by CNBC Make It's new online course, How To Start A Business: For First-Time Founders. Find step-by-step guidance for launching your first business, from testing your idea to growing your revenue. Sign up today with coupon code EARLYBIRD for an introductory discount of 30% off the regular course price of $127 (plus tax). Offer valid September 16 through September 30, 2025.

Meta's 28-year-old billionaire prodigy says the next Bill Gates will be a 13-year-old who is 'vibe coding' right now | Fortune

Alexandr Wang -- who became the world's youngest self-made billionaire at 24 -- is now, at 28, running one of the most ambitious AI efforts in Silicon Valley. In his first 60 days at Meta, he built a 100-person lab he described to TBPN hosts John Coogan and Jordi Hayes as "smaller and more talent dense than any of the other labs." Wang, with his aerial view of the industry, has advice for kids, especially those in Gen Alpha now entering middle school: Forget gaming, sports, or traditional after-school hobbies. "If you are like 13 years old, you should spend all of your time vibe coding," he said in his recent TBPN interview. "That's how you should live your life." For Wang, the reasoning is simple. Every engineer, himself included, is now writing code that he believes will be obsolete within five years. "Literally all the code I've written in my life will be replaced by what will be produced by an AI model," he said. That realization has left him, in his words, "radicalized by AI coding." What matters most now isn't syntax, or learning a particular language, but time spent experimenting with and steering AI tools. "It's actually an incredible moment of discontinuity," Wang said. "If you just happen to spend 10,000 hours playing with the tools and figuring out how to use them better than other people, that's a huge advantage." Teenagers have a clear advantage over adults: time and freedom to immerse themselves in new technology. And while in the past, entrepreneurial teenagers leveraged this time to be "sneaker flippers" or run Minecraft servers, Wang says the focus should now be on the code. He compares the moment to the dawn of the PC revolution. The Bill Gateses and Mark Zuckerbergs of the world had an "immense advantage" simply because they grew up tinkering with the earliest machines. "That moment is happening right now," Wang said. "And the people who spend the most time with it will have the edge in the future economy." Wang isn't coy about Meta's ambitions. He calls the company's infrastructure, scale, and product distribution unmatched. "We have the business model to support building literally hundreds of billions of dollars of compute," he said. His team, just over 100 people, is deliberately designed to be "smaller and more talent dense" than rivals. "The other labs are like 10 times bigger," Wang said, but their lab had "cracked" coders. The lab is split into three pillars: research, product, and infrastructure. Research builds the models Wang says will "ultimately be superintelligent." Product ensures they get distributed across billions of users through Meta's platforms. And infrastructure focuses on what he calls "literally the largest data centers in the world." Wang is particularly excited about hardware. Like many Meta executives now, he points to the company's new smart glasses, which had a hilariously foppish demo, as the "natural delivery mechanism for superintelligence." Placed right next to the human senses, they will merge digital perception with cognition. "It will literally feel like cognitive enhancement," Wang said. "You will gain 100 IQ points by having your superintelligence right next to you." Vibe coding is the shorthand for this shift: using natural language prompts to generate and iterate on code. Rather than writing complex syntax, users describe their intent, and AI produces functioning prototypes. The concept is spreading across Silicon Valley's C-suites. Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski has said he can now test ideas in 20 minutes, instead of burning weeks of engineering cycles. Google CEO Sundar Pichai revealed that AI already generates more than 30% of new code at the company, calling it the biggest leap in software creation in 25 years. Wang takes that further. For him, vibe coding isn't just a productivity hack, but a future cultural mandate. What matters isn't the code itself -- it's the hours of intuition-building that come from pushing AI tools to their limits, which is why he urges Gen Alpha to start early. "The role of an engineer is just very different now than it was before," he said.

Meta's young billionaire says the next Bill Gates is a 13-year-old vibe coder

Alexandr Wang, Meta's young billionaire, is building a small but powerful AI lab. He says kids, especially 13-year-olds, should focus on vibe coding to learn AI fast. Wang believes experimenting with AI tools now will give a big advantage in the future. Meta's smart glasses and superintelligent AI are part of his plan. Alexandr Wang became the world's youngest self-made billionaire at 24. Now, at 28, he is running one of the most ambitious AI projects in Silicon Valley. In his first 60 days at Meta, Wang built a 100-person AI lab. He said it is "smaller and more talent dense than any of the other labs". He explained this to TBPN hosts John Coogan and Jordi Hayes. Wang's main goal is to create superintelligent AI. He advises kids, especially 13-year-olds from Gen Alpha, to skip gaming, sports, or normal hobbies and instead focus all their time on "vibe coding". Wang believes almost all code written today, including his own, will be replaced by AI in five years. This idea has made him "radicalized by AI coding", as reported by Fortune. For Wang, what matters now is experimenting with AI tools, not learning a specific programming language or syntax. Spending thousands of hours with AI tools gives a huge advantage. Teenagers have an advantage because they have more free time to explore new technology. Wang says that instead of running small businesses or gaming, kids should focus on coding. He compares the current moment to the early days of the PC revolution. Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg gained an advantage by playing with early machines, and Wang believes the same is happening now with AI. Wang says Meta has unmatched infrastructure, scale, and product distribution. "We have the business model to support building literally hundreds of billions of dollars of compute", as stated by Fortune report. His lab, though smaller than competitors, is more skilled. Other labs may be 10 times bigger, but Wang says his lab "cracked" the coding problem. The lab works in three areas: research builds AI models aiming for superintelligence, product ensures these reach billions of users, and infrastructure manages the largest data centers. Wang is excited about hardware like Meta's smart glasses. He says they are the "natural delivery mechanism for superintelligence" because they place AI next to human senses, giving a cognitive boost. Vibe coding means using natural language prompts to generate AI-powered code instead of writing complicated syntax manually, as per the report. Many companies are using vibe coding now. Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski said it allows testing ideas in 20 minutes instead of weeks, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai revealed AI now creates over 30% of new code at Google. Wang says vibe coding is not just for productivity. It is about building intuition by experimenting with AI tools, which is why kids should start early. "The role of an engineer is just very different now than it was before", as per the report by Fortune. Q1. Why does Wang want kids to start vibe coding early? He believes early experience with AI tools builds skills and intuition for the future tech economy. Q2. What is vibe coding according to Alexandr Wang? Vibe coding is using AI and natural language to create code instead of writing it manually.